But critics have pointed out that it still allows the Soviet Union and the United States to continue arming the two sides in the Afghan civil war.

Today's signing ceremony was itself fraught with complications and required some delicate negotiations to get all four parties around the table.

The Pakistan and Afghanistan groups have so far never met face to face.

One UN official commented, "Getting them to agree where to sit is almost as difficult as getting the agreement in the first place."

Elaborate schedule

In the end, an elaborate and precise 21-minute schedule was drawn up.

The UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, came in first, followed by the Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministers who entered the room simultaneously from separate doors.

They sat either side of Mr Perez de Cuellar.

There was then a similar arrangement for the US Secretary of State and his Soviet counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze.

Threat of anarchy

Resistance leaders are furious that they were excluded from the Geneva talks.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chairman of the seven-party mujahideen alliance, attacked the accord as defective, unpracticable and ineffective.

He dismissed the entire UN-sponsored peace process as a waste of time, saying the agreement would ensure that what he called "an illegitimate puppet regime" would remain in place in Kabul.

Critics believe Afghanistan will slip into anarchy after the Russians leave, as war continues between the Soviet-backed Communist government of President Sayid Mohammed Najibullah and the seven mujahideen rebel groups.

But UN mediator Diego Cordovez was confident the pact would hold, and rejected fears that a bloodbath would follow the departure of the Soviet army.

"Things will start changing now," he said. "There will be a fundamental change of attitude among all the people."